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Tara's Heritage Days Review 2010

Tara Lopez's Heritage Days Festival Review 2010

Last Aug 1, 2010 - I went to check out  my favorite
Edmonton Summer Festival: Heritage Days!

There were over 80 cultural pavilions showcased- such a diverse bunch,
aren't we, Edmontonians! 

Hawrelak Park was filled with hundreds of people with different skin tones,  hair and eye colors, and numerous vocal accents... what a beautiful sight!

It was truly a showcase of the world in one place. (Well, maybe except for
a few countries like The USA, they did not have a booth at this year's
Heritage Days Festival, I wonder why not???)

Canada's booth was red-and-white with treats like Maple Snow Cones,
Nanaimo Bars, and Poutine!  Makes you proud to be Canadian, eh?

My recommendation when going to Heritage Days is to: go with friends,
get a brochure, and encircle what kind of exotic foods you'd like to try to
share eachother's dishes (so you get to try out many different flavours).
And then, map out your route so you get to check out all the Ethnic Booths,  all while knowing which countries you're going to stop at, to line-up for food!

This year, I was able to scope out all the pavilions, from the Aboriginal Tipis, all the way down to the massive East Indian Market.

I was aso able to try (and share with friends) many different dishes, but I think my Top 5 favorite ones had to be:

1. Camel Meat with yellow rice from Somalia
2. African chicken and fried plantain (like fried bananas- yum!)
3. Meat-and-rice spring rolls made up of grape leaves from Iraq called Dolma
4. Meat dumplings in a bowl of yogurt called Manti from Kyrgyzstan (interesting combination!)
5. Hallaca/Venezuelan Tamal, a Corn flour dough filled with chicken, beef, vegetables and olives wrapped in leaves (This was definitely DIFFERENT!)

My Top 3 favorite beverages where:

1. The Kvas from Russia - a soda pop drink that tasted
like a combination of Pepsi and Licorice
2. A yogurt drink called The Mango Lassi from Bangladesh
3. Halo-Halo from the Philippines, which is crushed ice, milk, and fruits w/ beans!

I was also able find a great deal on belts for $5 bucks from Kenya!!!

Really enjoyed checking out all the colorful Ethnic Costumes and
Cultural Dancing: from the Mexican Hat Dance, to a Thai dance comprised of people clapping their hands together sitting in a line, to Germans playing the accordion!

What was your favorite food/drink/performance/pavilion?

Oh well, just under 365 days to go till the next Edmonton Heritage Days Festival...

Kind of makes me excited, if ever, our City were to win in our bid for the 2017 "World Expo"- how much of an even BIGGER World Cultures showcase that would be!

* This past Heritage Days Weekend, the Edmonton Food Bank was able to
raise around 40,000 kilos of food donations, however, I think they fell just a tad short of their goal of 50,000 kilos. You can go to the Edmonton Food Bank's website to make a donation...

http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s38796

or www.edmontonsfoodbank.com

Hope to see you at next year's Heritage Days!!! :)

- Tara Lopez

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